NGC 2903

Spiral Galaxy NGC 2903 (= H I.56), type Sb+, in Leo

[NGC 2903, HST]
Right Ascension 9 : 32.2 (h:m)
Declination +21 : 30 (deg:m)
Distance 20500.0 (kly)
Visual Brightness 8.9 (mag)
Apparent Dimension 12.6 x 6.6 (arc min)

Discovered by William Herschel in 1784.

NGC 2903 is another beautiful and more conspicuous Northern objects which Charles Messier missed when compiling his catalog. Thus its discovery was left to William Herschel. This beautiful galaxy was also left out by Patrick Moore when he compiled his Caldwell catalog.

NGC 2905 is a bright knot (star cloud) in NGC 2903, contrary to the NGC 2000.0 description. It was first assigned an extra number by William Herschel (H I.57).

NGC 2903 is listed by Brent Tully at a distance of 20.5 million light years. It is a beautiful spiral, seen from an oblique angle.

Our image was obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is also available in large format:

In the SAC 110 best NGC object list. No. 54 in the RASC Finest NGC Object list.

  • NED data of NGC 2903
  • SIMBAD Data of NGC 2903
  • Observing Reports for NGC 2903 (IAAC Netastrocatalog)

    Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
    Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

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    Last Modification: 29 Mar 1998, 12:50 MET